Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Office Copiers - A Glimpse Of Evolution And Functionality

With evolution of technology, carbon paper copying has
turned in to digital photocopying which is a necessity in every office that
uses written documents. Researcher
Chester Carlson, who liked to use his kitchen for his electro photographic
experiments, invented office copiers when he found a way to duplicate documents
using light and electricity and patented his technology under the name of
'Xerography'. This technology laid the
foundation of the digitally enhanced office copiers we see today.

Analog office copiers

The early electric copiers were slow and inefficient. In order to make multiple copies, the
documents needed to be scanned each time, separately. Somewhere around 1950 to 1960, color toner
became available but they were scarce in quantity and therefore expensive and
difficult to find. In order to make
color toner commercial, the dye sublimation process replaced the conventional
electrostatic technology, and in 1968, the colored office copiers became
commercial and easily available.

Digital office
copiers

Laser technology later replaced all of the older ones and
copying became more efficient. Digital copiers today come with scan and save options. Once the data is scanned and stored in the
internal memory, it is available anytime later for printing.

Since 2002, every digital copier in the market comes with a
hard drive that stores files of every copy made, scanned, or faxed by the
machine, enabling the office manager to keep a record of every employee's
documents. Most office copiers come with
a security code as well. Every employee
is assigned a specific code so that if any ethical violation or misconduct
occurs, the document can be traced back to the worker via the code.

Integral parts of a
copier

Document Feeder /
Platen

This is the glass plate where the document that needs to be
copied is fed. This part requires
intensive care and cleaning. The glass
should be saved from scratches of staples or any sort of smudges. Some manufacturers offer a special cleaning
agent for the glass.

Lens or scanner

The digital office copiers today are equipped with a lens or
scanner, below the platen, to capture the image of the document. Analog copiers used a lens and several mirrors
for this purpose.

Toner

The ink used in the copier is referred to as the toner. The toner is in powder form, and is specially
designed to carry an electrical charge. Single
toned copiers use only black tone while polychromatic copiers use cyan, yellow,
and magenta in combination with black to produce multicolored spectrum.

Paper infix

A drawer or the tray serves as the holder for the paper. This tray can hold anywhere from one to thousands
of sheets of papers or the user will have to go through the trouble of fixing paper
at every instant.

Drum

The image captured by the lens or scanner then transfers to
the drum, which serves as a photo-receptive device and transfers the image on
to the paper. The drum has an
electrostatically charged surface providing an opposite charge as that of the
toner as a result of which when the paper passes through the rotating drum the
image of the toner is replicated on the paper.

Fuse r

The fuse r comprises two parts: a heat roller and a pressure
roller. After the transfer of the image
from the toner to the paper, the paper passes through these two rollers. The heat and pressure imprint the image on the
paper permanently.

Output tray

Like the in-put tray or drawer, the output tray is also used
to hold the papers securely. As the
paper comes out of the copier, the ink is hot and can easily destroy the
document by smudging if touched, therefore it needs drying, and tray serves as
a base.

Office copier brands

Many recognized and well-known companies have invested in
this business. The top copier brands include:

• Brother

• Canon

• Copystar

• HP

• Konica Minolta

• Kyocera Mita

• Lanier

• Lexmark

• Savin

• Sharp

• Ricoh

• Toshiba

• Xerox

Purchasing a well-recognized brand guarantees good quality. And if an unexpected malfunction occurs, you
have the manufacturer's warranty to get it fixed without any extra charges. However, the choice of which brand provides
the perfect copier for you depends on your needs and the number of employees
using the machine.

Multipurpose copiers

If you are in the market for a new copier, then the latest
multipurpose copiers may serve your purpose. This means that in addition to
copying, they also are good for printing, scanning, booklet making, punching ,
stapling and faxing. These copiers will
probably cost more so you may want to assess whether the added cost is
justified for your business.